


Gifts from the Ancients

by John_Steiner



Category: distant future - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:54:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22532815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Defrons and Guesidi are on a quest for a substance that is the pillar of their civilization. Venturing below the ocean waves, these two octopuses search for treasure that legends say was gifted to them by a long lost people of wondrous powers and achievements.





	Gifts from the Ancients

"What is this place?" Defrons asked.

Both octopuses cruised through the ruins that were clearly not built for the watery grave they lay in. Each octopus carried spiral knives and vials of their own poison for protection.

"The dwelling of the ancients," Guesidi replied through rippling flashes all over his body. "Gods of immense power and knowledge."

"Where did they all go?" Defrons wondered.

"Some say they met their fate and died en mass," Guesidi suggested, "Others claim that they ascended, and gifted all the world to us after purging it of monsters."

Defrons noticed a bottom feeding fish shuffle along the sand. They were among the last of their kind; creatures with bones inside their bodies. Resuming their quest, Defrons and Guesidi passed through the haunting reminds of the ancients.

Further along, Defrons saw a half buried ring of bone. It was a Great Maw, the only trace of huge monsters with several rows of teeth. No one knew what the creatures looked like other than dangerous. Adventurers more bold than Defrons had traveled to the ocean depths and on their return reported whole skeletons of inside-bones of another swimming animal. According to myth, they battled the Great Maws, but descriptions of those sagas all varied.

Illumination from the Airy Heavens grew, which told Defrons that they neared the end of their journey. Water depth diminished, and soon Defrons felt the Airy Heavens kiss the top of his mantle and his eyes. Guesidi continued ahead further onto the shore, with Defrons following close behind. While it was harder to see distance in the Airy Heavens, Defrons noticed the treatures that he and Guesidi sought.

"Wax Skin," Defrons declared joyfully, "Piles and piles of it!"

Wax Skin was just a word given to the magical substance that seemed to last eons, and helped forge civilization. The stuff came in some of the most peculiar shapes; six-rings, ghost-pouches, and more. Artisans back home learned to break it down and reform it into useful materials from which nearly everything was built.

Guesidi pried loose several bits and passed them back to Defrons, who took to tying them together. The pair worked for hours creating many clusters that would be easy to carry by porters also on their way here. Trespassing into the Airy Heavens was a dangerous venture, but something about Wax Skin seemed to frighten and repel the land beast and lesser creatures. Some octopuses would carry talismans of Wax Skin to ward off such creatures, though Guesidi had instead taught Defrons to live by the spiral knife and other survivalist weapons.

"Look here!" Guesidi writhed up to something more solid than Wax Skin. "Steel! It'll be hard to move, but we need to drag it under and mark it for Master Porters to bring back."

Being a Porter wasn't just any every-person's ability. It took long training to learn how to prepare and carry back appreciable loads, especially over long distances, which the average octopus wasn't suited for.

Defrons churned up as much sand as Guesidi did, when hauling the exhausting mass of steel to the water. Even under the surface required every ounce of Defrons' considerable strength to drag the non-boyant weight along the bottom. Once far enough from the Airy Heavens, Guesidi swam around the steel and scrawled into the sand glyphs that wouldn't so easily wash away from undertow currents.

Defrons didn't yet know the art of how to leave such treasure to where glyphs would wash away after their culture found them but before enemy peoples did. Guesidi first schooled Defrons on the journeyman skills of Seekers.

Guesidi then directed Defrons back with him to the Airy Heavens, to retrieve their bundles of Wax Skin. Entwining the base of an arm into a string, Defrons then crawled back into the ocean, and started pumping water through his siphon.

For the second half of the day, they traveled back home. Many homes and greater structures floated at carefully chosen depths with the knowledge of ballast. Most of the buildings were made of varying classes of Wax Skin, so identified by different densities, flexibility, hardness and other properties that Wax Smiths learned in the guilds. In the heady days, Wax Skin could be collected from the Far Oceans, but that had largely been depleted, and Seekers could spend days out there never seeing even the smallest shred of Wax Skin.

Defrons followed Guesidi to the Porters' warehouse, where they relayed their navigation to the Wax Skin and steel resources that the pair had found. Then, with dark of night coming, Defrons headed home.

Like most octopuses, Defrons lived on the edge of the city, which helped the people spot dangers. This night the ocean was at peace, and the Luminants rose. Tiny specks of life, the Luminants drifted up from the deep oceans, past the city, and onto the surface to their nightly love affair with the Airy Heavens.


End file.
